08/07/2024
The Pool of Bethesda;Who Stirs the Water?
The story of The Pool of Bethesda in. John 5:2 is one of the most amazing events in the new testament scriptures.
There is a deeper dimension to John 5:2 than ordinary healing of the impotent man on the Sabbath day.
Now the Bible recorded that The Pool of Bethesda camps great multitude of impotent folk, of blind, halt, withered etc. It was a place filled with broken humanities . Verse 4 gave account of how an angel went down at a certain season into the pool, and troubled the water: whosoever then first after the troubling of the water stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he had.
It's important to understand deeply who stirs the water. Isaiah 63:9 said "In all their affliction he was afflicted, And the angel of his presence saved them: In his love and in his pity he redeemed them"
Who then is the angel of His presence?
In the old testament scriptures, God many times appeared as an angel. We can see that clearly in Genesis 32:22–32 on Jacob's wrestling match with God.
In Genesis 18:1-37, the bible gave details of how God appeared to Abraham near the great trees of Mamre. Verse 2 & 3 "Abraham looked up and saw three men standing nearby. When he saw them, he hurried from the entrance of his tent to meet them and bowed low to the ground. He said, "If I have found favor in your eyes, my lord, [1] do not pass your servant by"
In other instances, as the Holy Spirit. During the movement of the Israelis out of Egypt, They saw this Angel of His Presence as a pillar of cloud by day and fire by night. Exodus 13:21-22 "By day the LORD went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud to guide them on their way and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so that they could travel by day or night Neither the pillar of cloud by day nor the pillar of fire by night left its place in front of the people.
Also, If you study Isaiah 63:10, it suggest who is the angel of His presence "But they rebelled, and vexed his holy Spirit.”
This is the point, Jesus is the angel that stirs the water. When he met the man at the pool, the man was only interested in narrating his ordeal but Grace found him. He was there in the presence of the very thing that stirs the water but was blind to recognize this. This is the problem of many of us today. The angel of his presence is constantly in front of us, but how often can we take that advantage.
Lastly, the context and manner in which Isaiah uses wrote shows us that the angel of His presence is God Himself, identified in Isaiah 63:10 as the Holy Spirit.
